Cantilever Bearings
Written by Les Chatfield for our Autumn 2019 Newsletter
This bearing was inspired by a Bert Love design for a ‘square bearing’ on one of his fairground models in which a stack of Wheel Discs are trapped in a box shaped structure of Angle Girders built so as to encase the ‘cake’ of Bush Wheels. Rods passed through four of the Bush Wheel Disc holes made up a strong skeleton axle to support heavy overhanging loads such as the arms of a fairground ride.
The cantilever bearing
I didn’t like the box bearing so I supported my stack of Wheel Discs (separated by washers) on two stacks of 1” Pulleys without Bosses mounted side-by-side on laminated Flat Trunnions. This provided greater bearing area for these two heavily loaded axles and added strength to the four bearings. The revolving stack of Wheel Discs and Pulleys is clamped together with four long Threaded Rods plus a central axle to ensure alignment. These Threaded Rods extend forwards from the front of the Wheel Disc stack to provide fixings for the hub in which the two arms of my ride model fit. A further axle fitted with ½” Pulleys journalled above the Wheel Disc stack locates it onto the 1” Pulleys without Bosses upon which the Wheel Disc stack is sitting.
A later refinement was the addition of a small Handrail Coupling into which the central alignment axle rod slips. This is an additional guard against the whole ‘cage axle, wheel disk’ assembly tipping forwards from its cradle of 1” Wheel Disc rollers.
It is complicated to build but works surprisingly well with a minimum of lubrication. I hope the photo makes it all clear.